Crown of a Prince (Finn Shelby)

69.

After seeing the wedded bliss of Bonnie and Jade, Ailbhe was presented with a very different reception at Tommy and Lizzie’s house in the country. Ailbhe knew that Lizzie was barely speaking to Tom, that she had stayed with Arthur and Linda for a while and that both Linda and Lizzie had presented to their husbands a list of reasons why they were unhappy. Ailbhe had sat with the children, playing with Ruby and being shown Charlie’s expansive collection of toy horses while Lizzie spoke with him in his office. When she came out she looked less than pleased, shaking her head at Ailbhe as if to say ‘I don’t know what to do with him anymore’.
 
None of them really understood Tommy. Ailbhe doubted they ever would. But they were all still there for him, working for him and doing as they were told since they knew that Tommy did it all for them, most of the time.
 
Tom joined them to sing happy birthday and cut Ruby’s cake, he even pulled her up into his arms and planted a kiss on her cheek. But before long he retreated back into his office, nodding his head at Ailbhe to join him.
 
She found herself sitting across his him, in the very room she had been arrested years before. It seemed so long ago but Ailbhe knew that she’d never forget certain things that happened to her. She’d never forget the noise of that morning as her family were split up and beaten. She’d never forget the chafing and bruising that the handcuffs did to her skin as she refused to stop tugging and trying to break free of them in her cell. She’d never forget the biting rope around her neck by Luca Changretta nor the aching loneliness of New York.
 
Tommy had told Lizzie about the wire cutters trick played on Ailbhe and what it meant. But Lizzie hadn’t mentioned it, not in front of the children. When Ailbhe came to the door Lizzie had grabbed her by the face inspecting her and being satisfied that Tommy had told her the truth, that Ailbhe was alright and hadn’t been injured. That didn’t mean she had to like it though.
 
Finn didn’t like it either, not wanting Ailbhe to be left out of his sight from now on. But Ailbhe had wanted to see Ruby for her birthday and she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Just because she was a woman didn’t mean she needed anymore protecting than the others. She had her gun in the glovebox of her car, she was only going to Tommy’s and she had her driver. Finn finally gave in, being happy to let her go as long as she promised to come back to his that night. It was an offer she wouldn’t refuse.
 
“What did you find out?” Tommy asked, offering her a cigarette that she refused but then offering a whiskey that she accepted.
 
“Michael kept his deals airtight. He either didn’t deal with any of our known contacts or he didn’t do deals at all”
 
She shrugged, having spent the rest of her day making phone calls and questioning the people she had dealt with in New York. After Niall and Finn had searched the office to be sure there was no more traps, they were satisfied that it was safe for her. Finn had lingered for a while, not wanting to leave her alone but knowing Liam was waiting for him.
 
“Fuck” Tommy sighed, putting his head in his hands and running them over his scalp, feeling the raised bumps from the scars of his surgery years previous when his skull was fractured.
 
“Maybe we’re wrong Tom, maybe Michael is telling the truth... maybe I’m letting my own feelings get in the way” She tried to reason with him and with herself. Maybe she was wrong.
 
But Tommy shook his head. He had known Ailbhe nearly all of her life and she was among the only people he trusted completely. She wasn’t wrong.
 
“It’s not just Michael... its whoever else is coming for us. Those people who set up today’s trap... they’re clever Alv”
He nodded, his mind clearly travelling faster than anyone else’s as it raced to come up with an answer.
 
Whoever it was had wanted to frighten them, to frighten them all.
 
Car engines revved outside the window and they could hear the gravel crunching under the tires of a car. The headlights flashed in the windows of Tommy’s office, lighting up Tommy’s face as Ailbhe realised he wasn’t expecting any guests tonight. Therefore, whoever was coming hadn’t been invited and was unlikely to be a friend.
 
“Get Lizzie to take the kids upstairs Ailbhe” Tommy ordered, springing to action and grabbing a gun from the wooden panelling behind his desk. He pushed a gun into Ailbhe’s hand too, knowing she might need it.
 
Ailbhe darted out to the drawing room where Lizzie had already grabbed Ruby and Charlie by the hands, pulling them along to get them upstairs.
 
“Who is it?” Lizzie hissed, asking Ailbhe but Ailbhe just shook her head.
 
That was exactly the problem. They never knew what was coming down the tracks for them and it was rarely good. Ailbhe couldn’t get the image of the magpie, a singular magpie with a golden ring in its mouth out of her head as she was told by Tommy to get down and stay hidden.
 
She could hear from where she stood behind the door, Tommy opposite her as he kept his ear cocked, waiting to hear a voice they recognised. The car door opened, someone was shoved out and fell onto the gravel groaning in pain and yelling out.
 
“Tommy!” The yell made Ailbhe look up at Tommy.
 
It was Johnny Dogs.
 
Tommy pointed at Ailbhe, raising an open palm to tell her to stay put as he stepped out into the doorway, gun raised and pointed towards the car.
 
“Get out of the car, get out of the fucking car. Now” Tommy shouted, while Johnny writhed in pain on the gravel. Ailbhe could swear she heard him telling Tommy to stop, crying out but Ailbhe couldn’t be certain. Her hearing was impeded by the pounding of her heart.
 
Ailbhe heard Tommy threaten to open fire if the driver didn’t step out but the voice shouting out into the open night’s air was familiar, extremely familiar.
 
“Are you looking for traitors? There’s one with his ribs smashed up!” he screamed.
 
It was Aberama and he sounded so tortured Ailbhe knew he was injured just by his voice. But she should have known that  no physical injury could make Aberama Gold weep.
 
Ailbhe didn’t care about Tommy’s orders anymore. She pushed past the doorway, into the night’s cold air as she saw the chaos before her. She kept her gun clutched in her hand but it dropped down when she saw them. Johnny Dogs was sobbing and writhing in pain, his hands curled around his mid-section and blood all over his shirt. Aberama looked worse for wear too, blood and mud covering his clothes while his eyes were red and puffy. His shoulder looked injured too as he held it across his chest.
 
Jade was with him, beautiful and serene Jade looked almost unrecognisable. Her clothes and face were stained in blood and mud and her eyes were red raw from crying. She was shaking, not from cold but from rage and utter sadness that leaked from her eyes and radiated from her.
 
“Johnny” Ailbhe gasped, hearing Aberama’s shouting and knowing that he wasn’t exaggerating.
 
Broken ribs were extremely painful and he didn’t doubt the tears in Johnny’s eyes were real. Ailbhe had bruised two ribs once from falling off a horse in Charlie’s Yard. She had been strapped up and in pain for weeks.
 
“The man’s gone fucking mad. They’re fucking lost it!” Johnny yelled out, still writhing on the floor.
 
Ailbhe looked up at the man and his daughter in law standing over Johnny, neither looking particularly regretful but almost shaking in rage.
 
Tommy tore his eyes away from Johnny, looking back up at Aberama who rounded the car and stepped closer.
 
“You did this?” Tommy asked, pointing down at Johnny.
 
“With one arm and a hammer” Aberama shouted back, his face red from tears and blood “And a mighty pain and a mighty fury”
 
Ailbhe had never seen anyone like that, anyone so tortured and broken. She immediately knew that her dreams weren’t false. She had been right. Tommy had been right. A black cat dream was never wrong.
 
“They killed him! My son” Aberama roared through his sobs and tears.
 
Ailbhe felt her heart stop for a moment. Bonnie was dead. Someone had killed him. Their friend, their champion fighter, their brother.
 
“They shot him and they put him up on a fucking cross and he’s fucking dead” Jade screamed out, so tortured and in pain that Ailbhe ached for her.
 
 
She didn’t understand. Who could have killed Bonnie Gold? He was unbeatable, he was ferocious and tough and unbeatable. How could someone kill him?
 
“Who did?” Tommy asked, his voice low and measured but Ailbhe knew him well enough to know his mind was racing, just like hers.
 
Aberama reached into his pocket with his good hand, pulling out a scrunched-up piece of paper and tossing it at Tommy’s feet. Ailbhe stepped towards him, reading the note in his hands.
 
‘By order of the Billy Boys’ was written in thick black marker, like the note that Tommy had told Ailbhe about that had been left for him with minefields, just like the note they had left for Ailbhe.
 
The Billy Boys were coming to Birmingham, coming for them all.
 
They were who had left landmines for Tommy, set a trap for Ailbhe with the wire cutters.
 
“Only Johnny Dogs and his kin knew where we were camped” Aberama exclaimed, his arm swinging from the socket and his face twisted in pain but Ailbhe doubted it was to do with his arm.
 
“No Tom no” Johnny sobbed, pulling himself up onto his knees and reaching for Ailbhe “Ailbhe you’ve gotta believe me I swear to God I never told anyone”
 
Ailbhe looked into his eyes, knowing he was telling the truth. Johnny Dogs wouldn’t betray them, he never would.
 
“I’ll fucking kill you” Aberama screamed lunging for Johnny, wanting to tear his head from his body for what he had made happen to his son.
 
 Tommy jumped forward, pulling Aberama away from Johnny while Ailbhe grabbed Jade, trying to get her to stop fighting, stop sobbing and shaking. Ailbhe had never seen her like that. Jade was the calm one, the always cool one, the one who didn’t have a temper and could smile through anything. But the girl who pushed against Ailbhe, who fought to try and get out of her arms was someone else. Someone new.
 
She was someone who had heard noises just outside camp, who had told Bonnie that she heard someone coming. She was a woman who had been told to hide, told not to come out from under the wagon until they came to find her. But the Billy Boys found her first, dragging her out and throwing her onto the ground beside her husband. She was a woman who had been held down and forced to watch as they killed him, as they put a bullet through his head and his eyes went still and looked back at her with no light in them.
 
“My fucking only son, you fucking took him from me” Aberama screamed, fighting against Tommy as he held him back, giving Johnny a moment to recover.
 
“How fucking could you? Johnny, how fucking could you?” Jade screamed, pain and anger twisting her voice in a way Ailbhe had never heard, in all her years of friendship with her.
 
Johnny scrambled off the ground, standing up weakly and holding his arm over his broken ribs.
 
“Your shoulder is shattered! Listen to me” Tommy yelled, grabbing Aberama by the face and forcing him to look him in the eye.
 
“Aberama listen to him!” Ailbhe shouted, trying to hold Jade back.
 
She wasn’t sure what Jade would do if she was let go but collapsing to the ground or trying to kill  Johnny was all possible.
 
“Your shoulder is shattered, if you don’t get it fixed you’ll lose your arm” Tommy warned him, trying to talk sense, trying to make Aberama see sense.
 
But the world didn’t make sense and he didn’t care if he lost his arm, his legs or his head anymore.
 
“He’s gone, they fucking killed him, my only fucking son” He roared, pushing away from Tommy.
 
Jade sobbed louder. Every time she heard it out loud, she heard the gunshot, saw the blood and felt it on her skin. All that was left of him was staining her skin now. That was all that she had left.
 
“How can a one-armed man avenge the death of his son, eh?” Tommy tried to reason with him but there was no point.
 
He seemed to calm for a moment, stopping his resistance against Tommy until all they could hear was his heavy breathing as he looked in Tommy’s eyes.
 
“They crucified my son... for you” He told them, his gaze settling on Tommy.
 
Bonnie was killed because of Thomas Shelby, another name on Tommy’s list, another mark in his ledger of names he would say to himself before he went to sleep. Danny Whizzbang. John. Grace. And now Bonnie.
 
Ailbhe felt the tears in her eyes. She couldn’t believe it. Bonnie was gone.
 
Aberama shoved away from Tommy, grabbing his fallen gun and snatching it up into his arms to point at Tommy. But Lizzie was already coming down the steps with a gun of her own.
 
“Get away from my house!” She shouted, waving the gun wildly and Ailbhe could see the terror and anger in her eyes.
 
“All of you! Get away from my child!” She screamed, pointing the gun at Tommy “This is my house.... and I don’t want you back”
 
Jade’s legs started to give up, growing weaker as she started to lean against Ailbhe, her adrenaline starting to wear off. Ailbhe held her up, having always promised to be there but she didn’t know what to say. Jade had been widowed, at twenty-two she was a widow and had lost the one man she ever cared about. But Jade needed to look after herself, she needed to calm down.
 
Ailbhe turned to Lizzie, where Tommy grabbed the gun from her hand and the gun out of Aberama’s hand.
 
“If you want to take on the Billy Boys, you need me alive” Tommy warned Aberama before turning to Johnny who was still crouched down in pain.
 
“Tom!” Ailbhe warned him. Surely revenge couldn’t be the first thing they wanted but she should’ve known better. Of course, it was.
 
“Everyone fucking needs me” Tommy sighed, looking back at Lizzie, an unspoken conversation passing between them. He told her to phone an ambulance, that Aberama needed one and fast.
 
“Lizzie, please” Ailbhe nodded towards Jade, the girl who was in pieces in her arms.
 
Lizzie obliged, taking Jade into her arms and bringing her into the house where she could phone an ambulance
 
“Johnny, it’s okay. You’ll be okay” Ailbhe promised him as Tommy and her helped him to his feet.
 
But Ailbhe’s mind was racing. They were at war with the Billy Boys now and they were already winning. They had killed Bonnie. A peaky blinder, a son to Aberama Gold, a husband to Jade Jesus, a brother to Isiah and Finn.
 
“I’m no black cat Tom, I’m not Ailbhe I swear to God I’m not” He hissed through the pain, grabbing onto Ailbhe and Tommy who held him up on his feet, helping him into the house.
 
Ailbhe looked across at Tommy and nodded. He wasn’t the black cat they had dreamt about. Johnny was no traitor.
 
“I know Johnny. We know” Tommy nodded “In all the world, of all the people. You alone I know I can trust”
 
It wasn’t Johnny Dogs. This Ailbhe knew for sure. But someone was betraying them and the dreams hadn’t stopped yet. Someone had betrayed them and had led to Bonnie Gold being shot and crucified. And this someone would pay, whether it be by Ailbhe’s hands or someone else’s. She didn’t care. She’d crucify them herself if she had to.